Mike Deaver, A Selfless Idealist

WASHINGTON — People who come to Washington to run the country are, as we all know

(because they keep telling us so), unalloyed idealists whose only interest is making this a better country and a safer world for all of us.

They`re here to serve in a noble cause.

They could all get rich back home, but they sacrifice themselves, their careers, their livelihoods for their fellow citizens here in the swamps of Washington. And what do they get out of it?

Well, in Mike Deaver`s case, apparently, something in the neighborhood of $18 million.

Four and a half sweaty, toil-filled years in the White House, tirelessly choreographing photo opportunities and TV performances for the President, his idealism and devotion to the ``Reagan Revolution`` never wavering, and now all poor old Mike Deaver can expect in the way of reward is a paltry $18 million and his picture on the cover of Time magazine sitting in the back seat of a cruiser-class limousine.

How are we going to keep smart, honest, dedicated men and women coming to Washington to serve their country if the reward for idealism and dedication to the public interest comes up short of $20 million?

Deaver, you will recall, is the former White House aide and longtime close personal friend of President Reagan and Nancy who left the

administration in the middle of last year to set up shop on his own as an influence peddler.

The polite name for it here is public relations, but the reality is influence peddling, and a lot of people who can claim access to one area or another of government make a very fancy living at it here.

No one, though, has done so well so fast as Deaver.

But then, few of our local influence peddlers have qualifications to match Deaver`s. He started out working for Reagan 20 years ago as, basically, a coat holder. In the White House he moved up to principal protector and furbisher of the presidential image, along with the job of confidant and sympathetic listener to Nancy Reagan.

He spent most of the first Reagan term whining in public about how difficult--nay, impossible--it was to live on a government salary in the $70,000 range. Then last year, after the fiasco he produced in booking the President for a visit to the Nazi cemetery at Bitburg, Deaver left the White House to open his own public relations/lobbying firm here.

Because of his close personal ties to the Reagans, Deaver was allowed to keep his White House pass, a highly unusual arrangement which reminded some people here that Jimmy Carter had done likewise for that notorious banker, Bert Lance.

In no time at all, Deaver was bragging about the millions of dollars in contracts he had lined up with such clients as South Korea, Canada and Rockwell International.

He also wound up on the cover of Time.

And last week he was knee-deep in the sort of sludge and sleaze that seem somehow inevitably to muck up every administration that arrives here.

Deaver, it turns out, personally lobbied the head of the budget office to buy more B-1 bombers, which are made by--you guessed it--Rockwell International, despite a law that bars ex-officials from dealing for a year with their former agencies.

The White House said Deaver was technically in the clear because the budget office, though it draws up Reagan`s budget, is not technically part of the White House.

Next, it turned out that the General Accounting Office, at the request of Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.), was investigating Deaver`s lobbying efforts on acid rain for the Canadian government.

Deaver, who played a principal role in arranging last year`s Reagan summit meeting in Quebec with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, is widely credited with changing Reagan`s mind on the acid rain issue.

And finally, in what was quite a week, it was reported that Deaver has now signed up as a client, at $500,000, the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whose oil revenues are sinking out of sight.

This comes when Deaver reportedly is in the process of selling his firm

--in business less than a year and possessed of few visible assets other than Deaver himself--to a British public relations outfit for $18 million.

Although he is selling his firm, Deaver will continue to run it. And just in case you have any doubt about what it is Deaver is really peddling in his

``public relations`` business, note that the Saudi contract, according to the Washington Post, specifies that Deaver personally is to handle the account, and that if he leaves the Saudis can cancel the contract.

Ah, idealism. Forget the money. What`s $18 million, give or take a couple of million? It`s what he did, so selflessly, for all of us that makes Mike Deaver a genuine and enduring hero of the Reagan Revolution, and just the kind of guy Washington never seems to get enough of.